Rooney Mara

"I always wanted to be an actor, but I was always fighting it. It never seemed that honorable to me, and I guess I was always afraid that I might fail." - Mara Rooney

In one of the most hotly contested casting races in recent memory, the relatively unknown actress Rooney Mara toppled Hollywood heavyweights Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson (among others) to land the coveted role of Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher’s eagerly anticipated adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s literary phenomenon, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. She's already an up-and-comer, with roles in Youth in Revolt, A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Social Network. But Mara’s casting as the pixie hacker in the new blockbuster -- and its sequels -- has sealed her fate as Hollywood’s newest "it" girl.

SEX APPEAL

Unlike the asocial cyberpunk she’s been enlisted to portray in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Rooney Mara’s features are delicate and classic. Let’s face it, the girl has movie-star-in-the-making written all over her. Though her love life has yet to be scrutinized by the gossip-hungry vultures at TMZ and beyond (trust us, we checked), her incoming superstardom should make her and her future lovers staples of celebrity glossies for years to come.

SUCCESS

It may seem that Rooney Mara was plucked out of obscurity to play the role of a lifetime -- Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo -- but trust us, girl paid her dues. After five years in show business, plying her trade with forgettable roles in shows like Law And Order: Special Victims Unit and ER, Mara finally made her mark with a supporting role in Youth in Revolt and the lead in the A Nightmare on Elm Street reboot.

However, it was her performance in David Fincher’s upcoming Facebook Saga The Social Network that turned her on to the cinematic maestro, and forced him to cast her in his adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s international best-seller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Mara has also signed on to appear in the next two films of Larsson’s Millenium trilogy, so look for the future movie star to be a ubiquitous presence at the multiplex for a very long time.

Rooney Mara Biography

Rooney Mara was born in an affluent Westchester County town, an unlikely princess of football royalty. Her father is an executive with the New York Giants, and her two great grandfathers founded the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants respectively. Mara has actually gone so far as to say that football is the glue that holds her family together, odd words for the elegant actress who grew up traveling through South America and studying psychology, international social policy and nonprofits at New York University. Though she remains passionate about charitable work (Mara oversees the charity Faces of Kibera, which provides aid for orphans in Kenya), her early experiences in musical theater as well as watching her older sister Kate succeed in Hollywood inspired Mara to pursue a career in acting.

rooney mara’s hollywood career kicks off

Judging by the genesis of Rooney Mara’s acting career, movie stardom was never a certainty for the young ingenue. Her professional acting debut was in the straight-to-DVD stinker Urban Legends: Bloody Mary, which she followed up with ordinary work in television shows like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and ER. Her first lead in a feature film was in the forgettable Tanner Hall alongside Amy Sedaris and Tom Everett; however, her standout performance and natural screen presence screamed potential, and turned Hollywood on to a bright young talent.

rooney mara takes the next step

Though audiences were still unfamiliar with Rooney Mara, casting directors began taking notice of the rising star. She auditioned for the lead in the Michael Cera-starring Youth in Revolt, but director Miguel Arteta cast her in a supporting role instead. In the film her character attempts to bed 50 guys before she goes to college, which sounds like a pretty good idea to us. She also appeared in the films Dare and The Winning Season, which led to her being named on Filmmaker magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2009. But her big break -- or rather the role that led to her big break -- was being cast in David Fincher’s rabidly anticipated The Social Network. The film -- in which she plays Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s ex-girlfriend -- has been receiving white hot buzz since there was barely a script. Clearly, Fincher enjoyed working with Mara, because his next move would change her life forever.

rooney mara snags the lead in the girl with the dragon tattoo

For months, bloggers (and their older, more respected cousins, journalists) speculated as to who would land the immensely coveted role of Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher’s screen version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Stieg Larsson’s novel and its two sequels had officially become the most significant work of pulp fiction since Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.

The casting of Lisbeth -- the tatted and pierced hacker and centerpiece of the trilogy -- was crucial. Rooney Mara’s name was bandied about from the start, but got lost in the fray of more famous competitors like Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman and Ellen Page. In the end, David Fincher shocked Hollywood by casting the relatively unknown Mara in one of the most sought-after roles in recent memory. The high-profile job almost guarantees Mara A-list status, at least during her time as Lisbeth. The question now is can she live up to the challenge and hype? Or will she crumble under the white hot lights?